How to play Letter Hive: finding more words

Seven letters can hide dozens of words. Here’s how to find them, starting with the big one: the pangram that uses every letter.

The rules

You get seven letters in a honeycomb. Make words of four or more letters. Every word must include the centre letter, and you can use letters more than once. Four-letter words score 1 point; longer words score a point per letter. A pangram, a word using all seven letters, scores 7 extra.

Find the pangram first

Every hive has at least one. Look for common chunks among the seven letters: -ING, -ED, -ER, -LY, -TION or RE-. If the hive has I, N and G, try building a word that ends in -ING using the other four letters.

Grow words you’ve already found

Every word is a seed for more. If you found TILE, try TILED, TILER and TILING if the letters allow. Front-loading works too: RE, UN and IN turn short words into long ones.

Use repeated letters

Letters can repeat, which opens words like LITTLE, TOTTER or BALLOON. When you run dry, try doubling a consonant.

Shuffle and step away

Press Shuffle (or the space bar) to rearrange the outer letters. A new layout often makes a hidden word jump out. Coming back after a break works surprisingly well too, and your words for the day are saved.

The ranks

Ranks are a share of the hive’s total points: Starter, Warming up, Rolling, Good, Strong, Superb, Brilliant (70%, which counts as beating the hive) and Hive mind for finding every word.